My video explainer intends to raise awareness of the digital and ai divide, providing an example of how these issues can affect marginalized communities and exacerbate social inequality. As AI technology rapidly advances, society becomes increasingly digitally dependent with automated media, communications, and technologies playing a large role in our daily lives (Goggin & Soldatić 2022). This increase in automation includes essential services, with many providers beginning to rely on AI technologies to deliver service. With this change, we must consider the effects on those who are unable to access this technology. With 9.1% of Australians being highly digitally excluded (Australian Digital Inclusion Index 2023), the digital divide is a prevalent issue in our society that is scarcely understood by those who are unaffected. As this issue is rarely acknowledged, my project intends to raise awareness by explaining these concepts in a way that is digestible to viewers. I hope to inspire new thoughts and ideas within viewers, sparking their interest in digital inequality and leading them to take a closer look at society’s integration of AI tech.
When creating my project, I faced multiple barriers that made it difficult to execute my video in the way I had intended. My original idea for this video was to focus solely on AI customer service chatbots and how they affect marginalized communities. The week 4 and 5 topics of health and social services were extremely interesting to me and helped shape the direction of my project. Reading ‘Automation, wellbeing and Digital Voice Assistants’, a study on elderly groups interactions with AI voice assistants (Duque et al. 2021), was particularly inspiring and I had intended to mirror this type of research with my project. Focusing on a niche idea, I struggled to find studies that explored my topic and my research was heavily reliant on the cross-referencing of multiple related research papers. Up until the week 9 presentation, I was solely focused on the chatbot concept although my research and ideas were quite scattered. At the presentation, it was suggested to me to focus on a larger theme and include the chatbot topic as an example rather than a main focus. This was a great idea as it allowed me to expand on the overall issue of digital inequality, which is something I had become extremely interested in. Although expanding my topic was a good call, it became a challenge as I had little time to reconstruct the structure of my project and research more thoroughly into these ideas. Overall, while I’m grateful that this change added useful ideas and information to my project, I feel that the task of researching and implementing these ideas stressed me out a bit and I struggled to change gears with my project. I feel that this made the final product a bit rushed as I managed my research time poorly.
I think the most successful aspect of my finished work is the manner in which I explained my topics. Although I was covering a lot of ground, I feel I was able to explain my concepts in a way that is simple to understand for someone who may be unfamiliar. I would have liked to have added more visual aspects to my project but I think I did well with the scripting and audio aspects. If I were to keep working on this project, I would like to improve my editing and add more B-roll and visualizers. I think this is the biggest flaw in my current work and I feel that with more visual aspects my project would be more engaging to audiences. I focused heavily on my scripting and the concepts I was presenting and I feel that the visuals fell behind.
This studio has taught me so much about the digital world and how changes in technology affect our daily lives. This has sparked a lot of curiosity about how everyday services and societal structures interact with AI technologies. Learning about the ADM+S center and looking into their projects and research has been super interesting and inspiring. Looking into the Australian Digital Inclusion Index was particularly significant to me and has inspired an interest in digital inclusion, helping shape my final project. This led me to begin questioning new technologies as a whole, considering their benefits and downfalls and what groups may gain from them or struggle as a result of their implementation. As society becomes more and more digitally dependent, I will continue to question and research new technologies.
During this studio I’ve also really enjoyed the process of creating my final piece, focusing on just one project for multiple weeks. I’ve never created a project with a process like this that allows me to hone in on a certain topic and go in depth on it in a structured manner. Moving forward I would like to create a personal project that follows this same process. I’ve learned tools to help research, express, and expand on my topics in an effective manner, which has shaped my understanding of my creative process.
Working collaboratively in this studio has been really inspiring. Observing the creative process and perspective of others has allowed me to learn from their work and apply aspects of their process to my own. In group projects, I enjoyed observing the skills of others and working together to create a piece that highlights each of our talents and perspectives. Executing group work is an essential skill that will be helpful as we enter the workforce. I’m grateful for the experience and knowledge I’ve gained throughout this studio and I look forward to applying it in my future professional work.
References
Australian Digital Inclusion Index 2023, Key findings and next steps, Australian Digital Inclusion Index.
Duque, M, Pink, S, Strengers, Y, Martin, R & Nicholls, L 2021, ‘Automation, Wellbeing and Digital Voice Assistants: Older People and Google devices’, Convergence: The International Journal of Research into New Media Technologies, vol. 27, no. 5, p. 135485652110385.
Goggin, G & Soldatić, K 2022, ‘Automated decision-making, digital inclusion and intersectional disabilities’, New Media & Society, vol. 24, no. 2, pp. 384–400.